


Destiny's dramatic irony

by Itsamess



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Bad Puns, F/M, Gen, Natasha deserved better, Post-Endgame
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-26
Updated: 2019-04-26
Packaged: 2020-02-04 13:23:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18605392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Itsamess/pseuds/Itsamess
Summary: “Excuse me, but you really look familiar. Have we met before?”“We are meeting now” he says, blushing a little.-------------------------------------------------------Steve meets an old friend.Dramatic irony ensues.





	Destiny's dramatic irony

His heart skips a beat when he sees her again, but he'll walks towards her anyway because he has been waiting this moment for so long.

It’s a lovely spring morning of 2007. New York is filled with teenagers wearing chokers and channelling their inner Avril Lavigne with colorful hair extentions, but the girl on the park bench doesn’t seem to like fashion trends.

Her hairs are just red.  
Not exactly her natural color, but she has always liked it that way.  
She is eating an apple and listening to her mp3, like she always does during the lunch break.

He doesn’t want to scare her, but he knows that he may not get another chance to talk to her. So he sits on her same bench, a few feet from her.  
The girl doesn't seem to notice and takes another bite of her apple.

“Such a lovely day, isn’t it?”

“Umh?” she takes off one of her earphones.  
_Umbrella_ , by Rihanna.  
Steve smiles thinking that her music tastes won’t get better in the future.

“Excuse me, I didn’t want to bother you” he says, smiling to her “That’s the curse of old people, we can’t stand the silence for long!”

“No bother, really, I don’t mind” she says, politely. She takes off the other earphone and turns off the mp3, leaving Rihanna alone in the pouring rain. She usually doesn’t talk to strangers - not if she can help it - but there’s a spark in the old man’s eyes that reminds her of something. Probably it’s just a stupid feeling.  
“You are right, today there is such a nice weather that I really couldn’t spend my lunch break in the office...”

“Desk job?”

She throws her head back laughing.  
“No, not really”  
Working with the S.H.I.E.L.D. is many things – stressing, frustrating, tiring – but sure as hell isn’t boring. She smiles to the old man.  
“I am Natasha, by the way”

“Steve”

“Steve...” she repeats “Excuse me, but you really look familiar. Have we met before?”

“We are meeting now” he says, blushing a little.

He feels guity interfering with the past like that. It’s selfish, and dangerous, but he has spent too many years of his life doing the greater good: now he just wants to see an old friend.

They chat for a while, even though Steve never tells her what has been on the tip on his tongue all these years: _your sacrifice was worth it, Clint never fully recovered, we won, Tony didn’t make it_.

He has rehearsed these words a million times, but now that she is really in front of him, he simply cannot tell her.

He is not afraid to change the future: he knows that Natasha would make the same decision over and over again even if she knew which were the consequences.

He simply doesn’t tell her because it’s 2007, birds are singing in Central Park and Natasha Romanoff is just a beautiful girl basking in the sun and listening to pop music.  
She doesn’t need to bear the horror of what’s coming, not yet.

“Are you waiting for someone?” Steve asks her when she gives a quick glance to her watch.

Her face glows up.  
“Yeah, a friend of mine"

"Just a friend?"

"Well, actually he is just an obnoxious colleague, but he is growing on me… who knows?” she says, smiling “Maybe we’ll even fall for each other, in the future. I like to keep my options open.”

“Who’s that obnoxious, yet charming colleague you were talking about?” a voice asks behind them.

Steve and Natasha turn around.

“Obviously not you, Clint Lurking In The Background Barton. I wouldn’t fall for you even if we were the last ones on the planet”

**Author's Note:**

> In the end, she **did** fall for him.
> 
> Yes, I do love puns. And dramatic irony.  
> This movie messed me up ok?


End file.
